{"id":10647,"date":"2010-10-19T17:00:21","date_gmt":"2010-10-19T21:00:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/?p=10647"},"modified":"2010-10-19T17:04:59","modified_gmt":"2010-10-19T21:04:59","slug":"a-complex-situation-indeed-some-reflections-on-waiting-for-superman","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/2010\/10\/19\/a-complex-situation-indeed-some-reflections-on-waiting-for-superman\/","title":{"rendered":"A complex situation indeed — some reflections on “Waiting for Superman”"},"content":{"rendered":"

From DSC:<\/strong><\/span>
\nThanks to Dr. Kate Byerwalter at GRCC, I was reading an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette by Julie Mack entitled, ‘Waiting for Superman’ powerful but misleading<\/a>.\u00a0 Julie brings up some good points, such as (emphasis mine):<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

It\u2019s hard to argue with Guggenheim\u2019s larger themes: American education needs to improve; inner-city schools are especially substandard, and\u00a0 teachers\u2019 unions are fierce defenders of a dysfunctional status quo.<\/span><\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

On one hand, the movie ignores the heart of the problem. Contrary to what the movie suggests, the big crisis in American education is not lack of opportunity for the academically ambitious; it\u2019s the struggle to serve families who don\u2019t see the value in education.<\/span><\/p>\n

The common dynamic in poor-performing schools is a vicious cycle of low expectations, starting with stressed-out, poverty-stricken parents who don\u2019t have the time nor energy to nurture their children\u2019s education. That leads to kids who don\u2019t care about school because their parents don\u2019t seem to care —\u00a0 and to teachers who get tired of beating their heads against a wall in the face of student and parental indifference. <\/span><\/p>\n

Absolutely, schools have a responsibility break that cycle. But it\u2019s also important to acknowledge the difficulty of that dynamic.<\/span> To put the entire blame on educators, as Guggenheim does, seems hugely simplistic and unfair.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, for far too long, the educational establishment has used the \u201cit\u2019s-the-parents-fault\u201d argument to avoid accountability for its own failures. In that respect, \u201cWaiting for Superman\u201d is a powerful, desperately needed wakeup call.<\/p>\n

…<\/p>\n

If \u201cWaiting for Superman\u201d can galvanize the educational world to up its game, that may offset the film\u2019s considerable flaws. Guggenheim tells a great story. Too bad it\u2019s only half the story.<\/p>\n

From DSC:<\/strong>
\nBeing a father of three, I don’t know what I would do as a single parent. I have often thanked the LORD for my wife, because I know <\/em>that our family would not be what it is without my wife.\u00a0 There is no way<\/em> that I could do everything that she and I are able to do together as a team. Heaven forbid something were to happen to her, I think I would quickly find that there wouldn’t be enough time <\/em>or energy <\/em>to do so. Not only can I not be at two places at one time, but I know that <\/span>I<\/strong><\/span> <\/span>wouldn’t have the energy that it takes to properly parent our kids. <\/span><\/p>\n

That is, after a long day’s work (again, if I was a single parent), I would have to reach down real deep to find the energy that it takes to check to see whether our three kids have done their homework.\u00a0 Thanks to my parents, I care enough about education — and have been sold on its benefits — to make that effort. But if that wasn’t my background, I could easily see how tough it would be to begin an upward spiral that would last not just for my kids — but for the future generations of our family as well.<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not saying that inner-city schools all\u00a0 have single parents — no way. Nor am I saying that non-inner city schools are full of happily-married couples heading them up. Again, no way. <\/span><\/p>\n

But what I am saying is that with a significant amount of marriages in the U.S. ending up with divorce, I’ll bet that many kids only have one parent at home.\u00a0 And with only 1 parent, that makes things difficult … not impossible, but difficult.\u00a0 (Also, our struggling economy is a huge factor, a source of stress, and a piece of the complex puzzle as well.)
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Still, we must find ways to stem the losses of up to a third of our students dropping out of school. It’s far too costly to waste their God-given gifts. The status quo must go — it’s too dangerous.<\/span><\/p>\n


\n<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

From DSC: Thanks to Dr. Kate Byerwalter at GRCC, I was reading an article in the Kalamazoo Gazette by Julie Mack entitled, ‘Waiting for Superman’ powerful but misleading.\u00a0 Julie brings up some good points, such as (emphasis mine): It\u2019s hard to argue with Guggenheim\u2019s larger themes: American education needs to improve; inner-city schools are especially […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[159,72,306,347,46,293],"tags":[653,606,349,739,4,714],"class_list":["post-10647","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-dangers-of-the-status-quo","category-daniel-s-christian","category-economics","category-education-reform","category-k-12-related","category-sociology","tag-dangers-of-the-status-quo","tag-daniel-s-christian","tag-economicsbusiness","tag-education-reform","tag-k-12","tag-sociology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=10647"}],"version-history":[{"count":21,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":10668,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/10647\/revisions\/10668"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=10647"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=10647"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/danielschristian.com\/learning-ecosystems\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=10647"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}